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New Scientist Live

It’s all Greek . . .

From
Malcolm Oliver

St John does indeed seem to suggest that material objects may be secondary
manifestations of primal information (“In the beginning was the word . . .”) in
the first three verses of his gospel(Letters, 27 February, p 55).
However, “the word” is a translation of the Greek word logos and this concept
predates the gospel of St John.

Logos can be traced back to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. It was
in Stoic thought, however, that it became important. The Stoics believed that
the logos described the inherent principle of rationality, the underlying
reality in the Universe.

For the Stoics, the logos was divine. It was the active,
all-pervading principle, holding all things together and directing their
development in a purposive harmony.

The logos was also used in Platonic philosophy, where the
logos helped to provide a link between the spiritual world and the world of
ordinary sense experience.

Using these ideas, it is not difficult to appreciate that some people also
translate the logos as the mind of God.